WILLIAM BURDETT-COUTTS
The Edinburgh Fringe, one of the biggest celebrations of art and culture in the world, started this month, and luckily having an Aubin store on George Street in Edinburgh gave us the perfect excuse to get right into the thick of it.
The store on George Street is directly opposite the Assembly Rooms which is Edinburgh Fringe Aristocracy for the pivotal role it plays in bringing the whole Edinburgh Fringe together. Pretty much every household name on British television has performed at the Fringe early on in their careers so it attracts talent from all over the world on the look out for the next big thing.
Assembly ensures that the best acts are being performed at the best venues and have a heritage at the Fringe like no other.
The mastermind genius who ‘assembles’ it all [see what we did there?] is William Burdett – Coutts, Founder, CEO and Artistic Director for Assembly. We spent a seriously inspirational morning with William getting the low down on the history of the Fringe. Not to mention all the latest Fringe gossip...
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF – HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE FRINGE?
Like most things in life my story is pretty much an accident. I’m from Zimbabwe originally, went to university in South Africa and at the end of that time was called up for the army in Rhodesia as it was. That wasn’t for me, so I bunked to London!
I worked in theatre in the city as I’d studied drama at university. Some friends of mine wanted to put on a play. The plan was to put it on at the Young Vic in London and someone said you realise your dates are around the Edinburgh Festival, why don’t you take it up there? None of us knew what the Festival or the Fringe was, so I was dispatched up to Edinburgh on a reconnaissance mission to find out how the Fringe worked and basically we rented a space and put the show on. It worked pretty well and then went on to London and it did pretty well there too and after that rather unexpected success we thought, why not do the same thing again next year.
The following year I rented a hall on the High Street, rigged it, ran it, acted in one of the plays, directed another play, ran the venue, lost the keys to the venue so then had to sleep in the venue. It was the true Fringe experience, where you do a bit of absolutely everything.
After that baptism of fire, I was trying to start out as a director in theatre and someone said why don’t you look at the Assembly Rooms? I went to the Council and asked if I could rent a room, and the council wrote back and asked if I wanted the whole building. So, I thought why not!
I was on tour as a production manager at that moment and I sat in a dressing room at the Old Vic and basically booked all the shows, rented all the kit for the building without a penny to my name at the time and created the first Assembly which was back in 1981. The Assembly Rooms became the centre of the Fringe for I guess the next 10 – 15 years.
HOW HAS ASSEMBLY DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS?
Assembly spreads right across the city. We took on the Assembly Hall in 2000 and then space was offered up at the University around George Square, and we have ended up developing that space too.
We have 5 sites altogether, obviously we have the Assembly Hall, Rooms and George Square. We run a building called the Check Point and also the Roxy. 26 theatres, 243 shows. It’s a mind-boggling technical exercise. A lot of the spaces are empty most of the year, so they need building into performance spaces. We bring in all the kit, we light it, ensure the sound is perfect. You name it, we put everything in to make very good temporary performance spaces. Then we programme sets of shows that run literally from first thing in the morning until last thing at night.
You don’t find this in any other place in the world. Most places do one show a day. We do up to 10! The complexity of getting them in, rehearsing them, making sure they can get in and out and the next show can start on time. It’s a technical feat!
WHY IS EDINBURGH SO SPECIAL?
Why the Festival works in Edinburgh is somewhat accidental. It started out around the International Festival which begun in 1947. Very much a post-war attempt to create reconciliation through culture.
The Fringe started around the same time and that was much like a rogue element to the whole thing. People just decided to do it, they weren’t particularly organised in any form. I started at the Fringe in 1979 and there are now over 3,000 shows a year. It’s driven by the basic ethos that if anyone wants to perform at the Fringe, they can. It creates an opportunity for people. It’s very hard to get shows on in other places, hard to get recognition.
The great benefit of Edinburgh is the environment of the city. There are a lot of empty spaces that can be turned into theatres, and equally you can walk everywhere. It’s a magnificent city, very impressive to be in, in the first place and you get a massive congregation of shows all going on at the same time.
It’s the best show case in the world for performing work. Producers, theatres. T.V execs come from around the world to see what’s on.
WE HAVE TO ASK, CAN YOU DO SOME NAME DROPPING?
In my time, I can point to pretty much every major entertainment name on television that at some point has trodden the boards at the Fringe. It’s a rite of passage. The early days of Assembly saw now national treasures Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders perform with us, Lenny Henry, Jack Dee, Lee Evans, Graham Norton, Michael McIntyre were spotted by the BBC here. Fabulous people and shows get seen here and then go on to tour the world. It’s a platform to leapfrog into the next sphere of life.
You meet people on their way up and then people come back after they’ve made a name for themselves. It’s the one time in the year that everyone comes together, it’s a bit like an entertainment party. The festival sparks a lot of ideas and interest and brings so many people together. Ideas get percolated here. It’s the most invigorating entertainment, arts, performance event in the world.
The one that got away would be Eddie Izzard, She came to see me many many years ago, in my 2nd year of running Assembly rooms. She was a total unknown at the time and said “I want a huge room to perform in” I said no. And she now always reminds me of that moment! There are others, but Eddie is the most memorable!
We thoroughly recommend a visit to the Fringe, take a look at Assembly's website below to see some of the amazing acts performing.
